In television systems, it is known to reduce one or both of the contrast and brightness of a reproduced image in order to inhibit "white-spot blooming" due to excessive electron beam currents of the cathode ray tube (CRT) display device, as well as to inhibit CRT drive and phosphor amplifier saturation which tend to limit slewrate. This may be accomplished by directly sensing the beam current and, in response, generating a control signal for the contrast and/or brightness control sections of the system. The control signal may also be generated by detecting a characteristic of a video signal coupled to the cathode ray tube. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,599,643 entitled "Apparatus Responsive To Plural Color Video Signals For Amplitude Limiting The Video Signals To Assist Beam Current Limiting", issued to W. E. Harlan, discloses combining the three color signals coupled to the cathode ray tube and detecting the average of the white-going peak of resulting signal above a predetermined threshold to generate a contrast control signal.